(How many muppets must die for Jason Miller to dress in the manner to which he’s become accustomed? Pic: ESPN)

Truly spoken like a dude who’s used to being asked to leave. Some pretty classic quotes out on Tuesday from fighter, television host and all-purpose awesome dude Jason “Mayhem” Miller re: recent reports that Strikeforce literally couldn’t find him a fight during the last year of his contract because he’d become persona non grata at both Showtime and parent network CBS. Turns out, though he knew he was in hot water after his participation in the April, 2010 Nashville brawl, nobody at any of the above corporate entities bothered to inform Mayhem that he was no longer welcome on the two television stations and – therefore – damaged goods for Strikeforce. Instead, they just put him on the shelf to rot.

“I asked, and guess what? Nobody would tell me,” Miller told MMA Fighting. “This is a political environment. Nobody’s going to tell you. They’re just going to be cowards about it. That’s the way of the world. Nobody’s going to tell the crazy ultimate fighter guy to his face, ‘Hey, screw you.’ They’re not going to do that.”

This new information certainly casts the final year of Miller’s Strikeforce career in a new light. Now it makes more sense why the company seemingly didn’t know what to do with him, why none of the fights he requested ever materialized and why CEO Scott Coker always sounded so shifty when talking about Mayhem in interviews. From here we can extrapolate that the fight company was probably trying to find him a fight, but was ultimately unable to convince its business partners in TV.

Three things about that, though. One, pretty janky move for Strikeforce to just let him twist in the wind and not to come out and tell Miller they were dealing with unwavering hostility from the TV side. Two, well, fuck yeah he left for the UFC as soon as humanly possible. We would’ve done the exact same thing. And three, how in the blue hell does Jason Miller get banned from CBS when the parties clearly more egregiously at fault for the brawl – Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields – were all allowed to go right back to work after their cosmetic suspensions in Tennessee lapsed?

“Up until the last minute – up until it was apparent that they had no intention of fulfilling the contract – I was like, hey, I’m ready to fight. Let’s fight,” Miller said. “At the last moment, it looks as if, okay, they can’t fulfill the contract. Now I fight in the UFC … I have no ill will towards anyone. If that’s how they saw it, then that’s how they saw it. If that’s the case that I was really banned (from Showtime), then hey, it’s not the first place I’ve been 86′d from.”

Long story short, Miller essentially wasted a year of his fighting career (turning 30 in December) waiting for the suits to figure their shit out. That sucks, especially for a guy who by his own admission ain’t getting rich doing this shit.

“Here I’ve been sitting on the bench,” Miller said. “I’ve been training. I’ve been working hard and improving, but do you guys think I get some sort of severance package? Do you think I have ‘Bully Beatdown’ billions? I don’t, trust me. I sat around and wasted a good chunk of my career that I could have been making income and capitalizing on the fact that my body is great and I know how to fight.”

Cagepotato Comments

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"And three, how in the blue hell does Jason Miller get banned from CBS when the parties clearly more egregiously at fault for the brawl – Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields – were all allowed to go right back to work after their cosmetic suspensions in Tennessee lapsed?"

Because did you really expect Showtime to ban three sitting champions? Mayhem was a "nobody" to them, and someone had to be punished. It's bullshit, but it makes sense.

BaghdadBob- May 4, 2011 at 12:31 am

I like him as a fighter and am willing to cut him a lot of slack for his on-air antics because he's in show business, but nonetheless it must be admitted that Mayhem set himself up for this kind of treatment.

The Highest Primate- May 3, 2011 at 7:42 pm

Mayhem is crazy as a shithouse rat, but he's got a sense of humour and can laugh at himself. scrap pack cant take a joke and between them struggle to scrape up half a personality.. Coker is a shifty cunt but he'll be sacked soon and working Star wars conventions as a jabba the hut lookalike, so fuck him and his failed show. I hate on Nick for one main reason, everytime he gives an interview i want to shake him and scream "CHEER UP YOU SOUR CUNT!!!".

I would kinda like this guy if he wasn't such a douche, he sure gets a lot of love on other forums though. I guess if this story is true you dumbasses who thought diaz was ducking him look clueless as f tards. it's even added humor that he gets love for the exact same reasons people give for hating on nick. Did you see the video of him physically assaulting that reporter that was asking him about diaz? didn't see a story on here about that one

Canadian Chronic- May 3, 2011 at 5:22 pm

fuckin idiot

Canadian Chronic- May 3, 2011 at 5:21 pm

hey Mayhem, screw you

I just did that

Reverend_Clint- May 3, 2011 at 4:07 pm

fuck strikeforce

noname- May 3, 2011 at 3:29 pm

At lest when UFC bans fighters they tell them about it.

monkyspunk- May 3, 2011 at 3:18 pm

Mayhem is awesome. He says what's on his mind and doesn't bend over for the MMA overlords. I respect him for that. He may have a big mouth, but he's in no way a Diaz level douche. He got hosed by Strikeforce, and if you think that's okay then you have no respect for the sport.

O Chan- May 3, 2011 at 3:10 pm

I call BS on that one. First of all, CBS isn't running MMA because the SF Nashville card brought in shitty ratings. Keep in mind, while it was on network TV and would get higher ratings then anything on Spike or Versus, the ratings it brought in was still lower than CBS' Saturday average (ie Reruns of NCIS: Worcester still got a higher ratings). So with the mass under-delivery SF card on CBS, it's no wonder why they wouldn't re-up the organization for another go, it costs too much money to make good the liability.

Second, you really think Showtime would care about the Brawl? Hell, it would probably generate more ratings from the meat-heads who only watch UFC. It's a cable network that features original programs that glorify a drug-dealing soccer-mom (Weeds), a serial killer (Dexter), a family of alcoholics (That William H. Macy show), a sex-addicted man-whore (Californication), and that new Jeremy Irons show that most nets (including the one I work for) wouldn't run the commercial because it was too violent and sexual. So for them to say, "oh, no, we can't have Mayhem on our network, we have class", I'm calling bull-shit.

nickyroose- May 3, 2011 at 2:25 pm

Fuck that barking it ain't his brawl participation, it's his television show deal. What else separates him from the scrapped pack? He had a deal with another company, i.e. Viacom. CBS and MTV are no long er owned by the same company.

Jesus Frijoles- May 3, 2011 at 1:56 pm

Jim McMahon,intercept

cecils_pupils- May 3, 2011 at 1:53 pm

Don't worry Mayhem, lose 1 fight and Dana will happily tell you to your face that you suck donkey balls then hand you a pink slip. Buh-bye.

FightZen- May 3, 2011 at 1:51 pm

So what's the excuse for Tim Kennedy?

intercept440- May 3, 2011 at 1:34 pm

mayhem is entertaining... he's like that chicago bears QB back in the late 80's acts like a douche, but fun to watch